Characteristics Of Neolamarckia Cadamba

Every plant has their own characteristic and specialties. Neolamarckia cadamba is a tree that also can be found in Malaysia. In Malaysia, it is known as kelempayan or laran which classified under the family of Rubiaceae. Apart from kelempayan and laran, it also known as kadam, bur-flower tree, mai sa kho, kalempajan and jabon. Since it is a fast-growing tree species with a tall and straight bole, it is suitable to be used for reforestation in watersheds or eroded area and windbreaks in agroforestry systems. It is distributed in the Indo-Malesian region extending from India to Papua New Guinea (Ismail, Jusoh & Sahri, 1995). In general, Neolamarckia cadamba can be classified to four major characteristics: flowering and fruiting, seed germination
Seed germination is very important to distribute the population of the plant.The seed of N.cadamba is minute, trigonal or irregularly shaped. The fruits are a small capsule, packed closely together to form a fleshy, yellow and variety of colours containing approximately 8000 seeds (Ivy, 2011). The seeds are considered mature when the fruit has changed colour to dark brown. In forest plantation, human will provide a favourable condition for the seed to make sure the seed germinate and grow. According to Joker (2000) stated that the seeds should be stored in dry, airtight container as this will allow the seeds to retain viability for up to two years while at ambient temperature up to six months. Besides, the seed can be also dispersed by using the pollinator agents and the weather may affect the germination of seed. It is a flexible and fast-growing plantation tree species as it can be grown best on deep, moist, alluvial sites and regularly flooded areas. The most important circumstance for the optimized growth of this tree is the presence of light. The maximum temperature varies from 32 °C to 42 °C whereas the minimum temperature varies from 3 °C to 15.5 °C in its natural habitat. Apart from that, the growing ranges of the mean annual rainfall lie between 1500 mm to 5000 mm whereas the altitude range for growing lies between 300 m and 800 m above sea level. In addition, it can grow
Kelempayan is suitable for reforestation programs. It sheds large amounts of leaf and non-leaf litter which on decomposition improves some physical and chemical properties of soil under its canopy. This reflects an increase in the level of soil organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, available plant nutrients, and exchangeable bases. Besides, kelempayan is most profitable plantation among any other plantation due to management and maintenance of a large-scale commercial. Kelempayan tree plantation required fewer workers and operational cost involve. The tree plantation is environmentally friendly due to the fact that it is a nitrogen-fixing plant. On top of that, this species is a self-pruning species, which means that it can remove its leaves and branches as it grows, and this is very beneficial as the compost can be used to enrich the soil